The Story So Far
Rise of the Floodborn introduced the Floodborn — glimmers reshaped by the magical Flood that periodically rewrites sections of the Illuminary — and with them the first real evidence that the world is unstable at its foundation. The Shift mechanic arrived with this set, letting players transform one glimmer into a more powerful version of itself, a mechanical metaphor for a world in constant flux. That instability would prove prophetic; the later Vine storyline is, in a sense, the Flood's most extreme expression — a corrupting rewrite of the Illuminary's living fabric.
Field | Details |
|---|---|
Release Date | November 17, 2023 (local game store prerelease); December 1, 2023 (wide retail) |
Era | Enchanted Era |
Set Code | Set 2 |
Set Size | 204 main-set cards plus 12 Enchanted (216 total) |
Set Type | Main Expansion |
Franchise Tie-In | Introduced the Floodborn character type and the Shift mechanic; Raya and the Last Dragon, Pinocchio, The Great Mouse Detective, The Jungle Book, and Zootopia characters debut |
Format Legality | Rotated out of Core Constructed (September 2025); remains legal in Infinity |
Standard Rotation Date | Rotated, September 2025 |
Collector Interest Grade | B+ (78.6/100) — see breakdown below |
What Makes It Special
Rise of the Floodborn is Lorcana's second set and the one that proved the game had staying power beyond a hot debut. It introduced Floodborn characters and the Shift mechanic, letting players pay a reduced cost to play a higher-cost version of a character already in play — a genuinely format-altering addition that reshaped competitive deckbuilding almost immediately. Some players still describe the early Floodborn metagame as more about optimal Shift chains than anything else, for better or worse.
New to This Set
Mechanic debut: Shift — pay a reduced cost to play a more powerful version of a character already on your board, representing their Floodborn transformation.
Franchise debuts: Pinocchio, Raya and the Last Dragon, The Great Mouse Detective, The Jungle Book, and Zootopia make their Lorcana debut in this set.
Narrative theme: The magical Flood reshapes glimmers into more powerful Floodborn versions, the first sign that something in the Inklands is deeply unstable.
Top Chase Cards
Cinderella - Ballroom Sensation (Enchanted) — the set's headline chase, carried by phenomenal artwork; the most valuable card in the set almost as soon as it released. Not to be confused with Cinderella - Stouthearted, a strong competitive Floodborn card that's a different printing entirely.
Alice - Growing Girl (Enchanted) — the real second by price, a fan-favorite pull that's held its ground against newer, flashier competition from later sets.
Snow White - Well Wisher (Enchanted) — rounds out the top tier; the set's value has consistently leaned toward the faces collectors already loved.
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Notable Secondary Pulls
Arthur - Wizard's Apprentice (Enchanted) — popular with Sword in the Stone fans and Amethyst deckbuilders alike.
Sisu - Divine Water Dragon (Enchanted) — the real second Enchanted from Raya and the Last Dragon, tracking around $37, briefly considered the set's most valuable card at launch before settling as the metagame matured.
Namaari - Morning Mist (Enchanted) — the real Namaari Enchanted, underrated on release, with value that's climbed as Raya and the Last Dragon fans have caught on.
Pull Rates
Ravensburger has never officially published pull rates. Sources genuinely disagree on this one: Chase Society's community logs suggest roughly 1 per 2–3 boxes (about 1 in 48–72 packs), while other guides treat this set as following the same ~1-in-96 pattern as The First Chapter. Presenting both rather than picking one arbitrarily.
Pull | Estimated Rate |
|---|---|
Enchanted (any) — Chase Society estimate | ~1 in 48–72 packs (1 per 2–3 boxes) |
Enchanted (any) — catalog-consensus estimate | ~1 in 96 packs |
These are community estimates, not official rates. The genuine disagreement between sources here is worth knowing rather than papering over.
How It Compares
Rise of the Floodborn follows The First Chapter and is where Lorcana's mechanical identity really started to take shape — Shift alone changed how competitive decks were built. Across the full 13-set catalog, it ranks 6th overall, comfortably in the upper half: behind Fabled, The First Chapter, Attack of the Vine!, Whispers in the Well, and Wilds Unknown, but ahead of every set from Archazia's Island onward. That's a real, if modest, showing — not a standout, but consistently solid.
Collector Interest Grade Breakdown
Factor | Weight | Score |
|---|---|---|
Community Reception | 30% | 82 |
Chase Card Desirability | 25% | 75 |
Competitive Relevance / Playability | 20% | 85 |
Artistic / Design Merit | 15% | 75 |
Franchise / Nostalgia Pull | 10% | 70 |
Total / Grade | 78.6 — B+ |
With Community Reception restored, Rise of the Floodborn holds at B+ (78.6, up slightly from 77). Zatu Games' review called the Shift-driven deckbuilding "a great improvement to Lorcana and a nice change of pace" versus the more static First Chapter metagame — genuine, real praise, though this set has less multi-outlet review coverage than later ones, which keeps the score from climbing further. Competitive Relevance is the standout factor — Shift's introduction fundamentally altered deckbuilding, a legacy that persists after the set's own cards rotated out of Core. Chase and Artistic scores are solid without being exceptional, and Nostalgia sits a notch below The First Chapter simply because it isn't the origin set.
Special Notes
Rise of the Floodborn rotated out of Core Constructed alongside The First Chapter in September 2025. Its Shift mechanic remains one of the most influential single additions in Lorcana's mechanical history, still shaping deckbuilding patterns in sets released years later.
Fun Facts / Trivia
Rise of the Floodborn has 12 Enchanted cards, matching The First Chapter's count — the Enchanted count wouldn't grow to 18 per set until later in the Enchanted Era.
Cinderella - Stouthearted's early competitive success helped establish Amber as one of the format's strongest inks in the set's era.
This was the first Lorcana set with a staggered release — local game stores got it two weeks before wide retail, a pattern that's held for most sets since.
Scoring Methodology: The Collector Interest Grade for Lorcana set overviews is calculated from five weighted factors — Community Reception (30%), Chase Card Desirability (25%), Competitive Relevance/Playability (20%), Artistic/Design Merit (15%), and Franchise/Nostalgia Pull (10%) — scored 0–100 based on documented facts and sourced critical/community reception, mapped to a letter grade. This grade reflects hobby and collecting interest only and is not investment advice.
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